A suicide bomber has struck a Shiite shrine in a remote village in Pakistan's south west, killing at least 12 people and wounding 30, a government spokesman said.

Anwarul Haq Kakar, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the attack took place on Thursday in Jhal Magsi.

The village is located about 240 miles east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

The dead and wounded were being taken to nearby hospitals.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, but Sunni extremists have carried out many such attacks in the past, targeting minority Shiite Muslims in Baluchistan and elsewhere in the country.

Sunni extremists perceive Shiites as apostates who should be killed.

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